The chief executive of each prefecture is a directly elected
governor (知事,chiji
?). Ordinances and budgets are enacted
by a single-chamber assembly (議会,gikai
?) whose elected members serve four-year
terms.

Under the current Local Autonomy Law, each prefecture is further
subdivided into cities (市 shi) and districts (郡
gun). Each district is further subdivided into towns (町
chō or machi) and villages (村 son or
mura). For example, Hokkaidō has 14 subprefectures which act as
branch offices (支庁 shichō) of the prefecture. Some other
prefectures also have branch offices, which carry out prefectural
administrative functions outside the capital.

Historical
background

The current system was established by the Meiji government in July 1871
with the abolition of the han system
and establishment of the prefecture system (廃藩置県
haihan-chiken). Although there were initially over 300
prefectures, many of them being former han
territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the latter part of
1871, and 47 in 1888. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more
political power to prefectures, and installed prefectural governors
and parliaments.

In 2003, then-Prime MinisterJunichiro
Koizumi proposed that the government consolidate the current prefectures into
about 10 regional states. The plan called for each region to have
greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would
reduce the number of sub-prefecture administrative regions and cut
administrative costs.[1] The
Japanese government is also considering a plan by which several
groups of prefectures would merge, creating a sub-national
administrative division system consisting of between nine and
thirteen states, and giving these states more local autonomy than
the current prefectures enjoy.[2] As of
September 2009, no reorganization has taken place.

Types of
prefectures

To, dō, fu, and ken differ
in name only for historical reasons. Since 1947, there is no
administrative difference between the four types. Usually,
prefectures are called by their name only, without the suffix,
except for Hokkaidō.
However, the suffix is used when it is necessary to distinguish
between the prefecture and a city of the same name. For example,
Hiroshima-ken is the Japanese name of the prefecture, and
Hiroshima-shi is its largest city.

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Fu (Osaka/Kyoto) and
Ken

During the Edo
period, the bakufu established
bugyō-ruled zones (奉行支配地) around the nine largest cities
in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones (郡代支配地) elsewhere. When the
Meiji government began to create the prefectural system in 1868,
the first year of Meiji period, while the nine bugyō-ruled
zones became fu (府), the township-ruled zones and the rest
of the bugyo-ruled zones became ken (県): later, in 1871
the government designated Tokyo,
Osaka, and
Kyoto as
fu, and relegated the other fu to the status of
ken. During World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a
to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture (see below).

Before World War II, different laws applied to fu and
ken, but this distinction was abolished after the war, and
the two types of prefecture are now functionally the same. As a
result, the English language does not usually
distinguish between fu and ken, calling both
simply "prefectures."

Hokkaidō, the only
remaining dō today, was not one of the original seven
dō (it was known as Ezo in
the pre-modern era). Its current name is believed to originate from
Matsuura Takeshiro, an early Japanese explorer of the island. Since
Hokkaidō did not fit into the existing dō classifications,
a new dō was created to cover it.

The Meiji government originally classified Hokkaidō as a
"Settlement Envoyship" (開拓使 kaitakushi), and later divided
the island into three prefectures (Sapporo, Hakodate, and Nemuro).
These were consolidated into a single Hokkaidō prefecture in 1886.
The -ken suffix was never added to its name, so the
-dō suffix came to be understood to mean "prefecture."

When Hokkaidō was incorporated, transportation on the island was
still very underdeveloped, so the prefecture was split into several
"sub-prefectures" (支庁 shichō) that could fulfill
administrative duties of the prefectural government and keep tight
control over the developing island. These sub-prefectures still
exist today, although they have much less power than they possessed
before and during World War II: they now exist primarily to handle
paperwork and other bureaucratic functions.

"Hokkaidō Prefecture" is, technically speaking, a redundant
term, although it is occasionally used to differentiate the
government from the island itself. The government of the prefecture
calls itself the "Hokkaidō Government" rather than the "Hokkaidō
Prefectural Government".

The largest city and prefectural capital of Hokkaidō is Sapporo, the fifth largest city
in Japan. Other major cities include Hakodate.

Tokyo-to

The only to in Japan is Tokyo. Following the abolition of the han
system, Tokyo-fu (an urban prefecture like Kyoto and
Osaka) encompassed a number of cities, the largest of which was Tokyo City. Tokyo City
was divided into 15 wards.

In 1943, Tokyo City was abolished, Tokyo-fu became
Tokyo-to, and Tokyo's wards became the special wards, local authorities falling
directly under the prefecture in hierarchy, each with their own
elected assemblies (kugikai) and mayors (kucho).
A number of suburban villages and towns of Tokyo City were changed
to wards, bringing the total number of special wards to 35.

The reason for this reorganization was to consolidate the
administration of the area around the capital by eliminating the
extra level of authority in Tokyo. The central government wanted to
have a greater degree of control over Tokyo due to Japan's
deteriorating position in World War II and the possibility of
emergency in the metropolis.

After the war, Japan was forced to decentralize Tokyo again,
following the general terms of democratization outlined in the Potsdam
Declaration. Many of Tokyo's special governmental
characteristics disappeared during this time, and the wards took on
an increasingly municipal status in the decades following the
surrender. Administratively, today's special wards are almost
indistinguishable from other municipalities.

The postwar reforms also changed the map of Tokyo significantly.
In 1947, the 35 wards were reorganized into the 23 special wards,
because many had died in the bombardments during the war, many
survivors had left the city, and many men who had been drafted had
not returned.

There are some differences in terminology between Tokyo and
other prefectures: police and fire departments are called
chō (庁) instead of honbu (本部), for instance.
However, the only functional difference between Tokyo-to and other
prefectures is that Tokyo administers wards as well as cities.
Today, since the special wards have almost the same degree of
independence as Japanese cities, the difference in administration
between Tokyo and other prefectures is fairly minor (see 23 special wards for details).

The Japanese government still translates Tokyo-to as
"Tokyo Metropolis" in almost all cases, and the government is
officially called the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government." However,
some people still call Tokyo-to "Tokyo Prefecture" in
English.

Lists of
prefectures

List in ISO
Order

The prefectures are also often grouped into regions. Those regions are not formally
specified, they do not have elected officials, nor are they
corporate bodies. However, the practice of ordering prefectures
based on their geographic location is common. From north to south
(numbering in ISO 3166-2:JP order), the prefectures of Japan and
their commonly associated regions are: